Welcome to Hyperion Records, an independent British classical label devoted to presenting high-quality recordings of music of all styles and from all periods from the twelfth century to the twenty-first.

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Recordings

In 1931 the pianist and muse Harriet Cohen invited all her principal composer friends each to make an arrangement of a work by J S Bach for inclusion in an album to be published by Oxford University Press. Published as A Bach Book for Harriet Cohe ...» More

Details

Harriet Cohen, as well as being the unifying force behind the Bach Book, herself made a number of Bach transcriptions. Be contented, O my soul collates the opening recitative (‘Mein Gott, wie lang’, ach lange’) and closing aria (‘Wirf, mein Herze’) of Bach’s Cantata No 155 for the Feast of Epiphany, and is contemporary with most of the contents of the Bach Book, though it appeared independently in 1931. She dedicated her arrangement to Leslie Runciman, the ship owner and aviator. The recitative is remarkable for her unflinching retention of Bach’s ever-repeated pedal D in the bass and his expressive dissonances, apart from some pianistic filling-out of textures towards the end. The aria, with its persistent dotted rhythms later played off against triplets, develops into quite a difficult piece with some tricky textural tangles.